1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to gaming or amusement devices of the kind relying on the principles of chance to determine winners, and particularly to electronic control circuits for such devices.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A very popular form of gaming involves the use of a chance amusement device generally referred to as a slot machine. These devices usually are provided with a display formed by a plurality of rotatable reels set in motion by manual actuation of a handle provided on the machine. The plurality of reels are themselves provided with indicia in the form of symbols of fruit: such as oranges, plums and the like; with a winner being determined by certain combinations of the symbols appearing in one or more horizontal lines of a display area of the device.
An example of an amusement and game apparatus employing a set of symbol-bearing reels, together with the mechanism for spinning and indexing the reels, can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,642,287, issued Feb. 15, 1972 to J. E. Lally, et al.
Although these gaming devices were originally entirely mechanical in construction, employing a great number of intricate mechanisms to randomly arrest the rotating reels, determine winners, and effect pay-out, in recent years various proposals have been made for controlling chance gaming devices such as these by use of electronic logic control systems. Examples of logic control systems intended for use with plural reel chance devices can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos: 3,439,281, issued Apr. 15, 1969 to J. F. McGuire, et al.; 3,684,290, issued Aug. 15, 1972 to R. G. Wayne, et al.; and 3,834,712, issued Sept. 10, 1974, to C. H. Cox.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,269,503, issued Aug. 30, 1969 C. E. Foster, discloses an electronic logic system employed for deriving and accumulating jackpots for poker, fruit and other like gaming machines.